Granted Patent B2

US 12,289,639 · App. 17/596,618 · Granted Apr 29, 2025

Inventors: Binita Gupta (Cupertino, CA); Qian Li (Cupertino, CA); Jing Zhu (Cupertino, CA); Sangeetha L Bangolae (Cupertino, CA); Youn Hyoung Heo (Cupertino, CA); Puneet Jain (Cupertino, CA); Necati Canpolat (Cupertino, CA); Carlos Cordeiro (Cupertino, CA); Alexander Sirotkin (Cupertino, CA)

Assignee: Apple Inc.

H04W28/065H04W28/0865H04W84/12

Abstract

Claims (31)

1. A method, comprising:

at a next generation NodeB (gNB) implementing a radio access network (RAN) convergence functionality for new radio (NR) and wireless local area network (WLAN) access, the gNB further implementing a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) for each of the NR access and WLAN access:

receiving a data packet for transmission to a user equipment (UE) implementing the RAN convergence functionality, wherein the data packet is a control plane (CP) packet, a convergence layer is an NR Convergence-C layer

and the NR Convergence-C layer resides below a radio resource control (RRC) layer and above a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer on the NR CU, the receiving comprising:

generating, by the NR Convergence-C layer, a Convergence-C protocol data unit (PDU) for transmission to the NR PDCP and to the WLAN CU;

adding, by the NR Convergence-C layer, an NR Convergence-C header to the CP packet, the NR Convergence-C header including a SeqNum field and a signaling radio bearer (SRB) ID field;

splitting the data packet via a convergence layer residing on the NR CU; and

transmitting the split data packet over the NR access and the WLAN access.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the NR Convergence-C layer resides below a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer on the NR CU, the NR Convergence-C layer generating a Convergence-C protocol data unit (PDU) for transmission to an NR radio link control (RLC) layer and to the WLAN CU.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the NR Convergence-C layer adds an NR Convergence-C header to a PDCP PDU, the NR Convergence-C header including a signaling radio bearer (SRB) ID field.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gNB further implements a WLAN Adaptation-C layer to adopt an output from the NR Convergence-C layer to a format suitable for transmission over WLAN.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the WLAN Adaptation-C layer is implemented on the NR CU, the WLAN CU, or the WLAN DU.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the data packet is the and the convergence layer is an NR Convergence-U layer.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein when the NR Convergence-U layer resides above a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer on the NR CU, the NR Convergence-U layer generating a Convergence-U protocol data unit (PDU) for transmission to the NR SDAP layer and to the WLAN CU.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the NR Convergence-U header includes a PDU session ID, a quality of service (QOS) flow identifier (QFI), and a SeqNum field.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the NR Convergence-U layer adds convergence-related control information as a trailer to an internet protocol (IP) PDU received from the core network.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the NR Convergence-U layer defines an EtherType to carry a Convergence-U header within an Ethernet frame for Ethernet PDUs.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein when the NR Convergence-U layer resides below a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer and above a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer on the NR CU, the NR Convergence-U layer generating a Convergence-U protocol data unit (PDU) for transmission to the NR PDCP layer and to the WLAN CU.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the NR Convergence-U layer adds an NR Convergence-U header to an SDAP PDU, the NR Convergence-C header including a PDU session ID, a quality of service (QOS) flow identifier (QFI), and a SeqNum field.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the NR Convergence-U layer adds an NR Convergence-U header to an SDAP PDU, the NR Convergence-C header including a data radio bearer (DRB) ID to SDAP instance mapping.

14. The method of claim 6 , wherein when the NR Convergence-U layer resides below packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer on the NR CU, the NR Convergence-U layer generating a Convergence-U protocol data unit (PDU) for transmission to a radio link control (RLC) layer and to the WLAN CU.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the NR Convergence-U layer adds an NR Convergence-U header to a PDCP PDU, the NR Convergence-U header including a data radio bearer (DRB) ID for an associated split DRB.

16. The method of claim 6 , wherein the gNB further implements a WLAN Adaptation-U layer to adopt an output from the NR Convergence-U layer to a format suitable for transmission over WLAN, wherein the WLAN Adaptation-U layer is implemented on the NR CU, the WLAN CU, or the WLAN DU.

17. A next generation NodeB (gNB), comprising:

one or more processors configured to implement a radio access network (RAN) convergence functionality for new radio (NR) and wireless local area network (WLAN) access and implement a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) for each of the NR access and WLAN access, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to,

receive a data packet for transmission to a user equipment (UE) implementing the RAN convergence functionality, wherein the data packet is a control plane (CP) packet, the convergence layer is an NR Convergence-C layer,

and wherein the NR Convergence-C layer resides below a radio resource control (RRC) layer and above a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer on the NR CU, the receiving comprising:

generating, by the NR Convergence-C layer, a Convergence-C protocol data unit (PDU) for transmission to the NR PDCP and to the WLAN CU; and

adding, by the NR Convergence-C layer, an NR Convergence-C header to the CP packet, the NR Convergence-C header including a SeqNum field and a signaling radio bearer (SRB) ID field; and

split the data packet via a convergence layer residing on the NR CU; and

a transceiver configured to transmit the split data packet over the NR access and the WLAN access to the UE.

Continuity (2)

References Cited (14)